Particles
=Force Carrying Particles= The following particles are responsible for mediating and transmitting the four fundamental forces of nature: Electromagnetic, Gravity, Strong Nuclear, and Weak Nuclear Force. These particles can either be real indicating a radiation of energy from a source, or virtual indicating the existence of a field that particles will interact with. All force carrying particles are bosons meaning they have spin quantum numbers that are an integer multiple of \hbar . The Photon, Gluon, W and Z bosons all have spin 1 \hbar , while the graviton is a spin 2 \hbar particle. Photon Photons are the force-carrying particles for the electromagnetic force. Real Photons are emitted by atoms where electrons decay from a higher energy state into an available lower one. Virtual photons are transmitted between all charged particles communicating the electromagnetic force between them. Like all fundamental particles, photons carry characteristics of both particles and waves, and the revelation of this fact formed the basis of quantum mechanics in most cultures. Magneton: Magnetons are "particles" used for describing static magnetic effects. These particles do not actually exist, but are a useful mathematical tool regardless. Graviton Gravitons are the force-carrying particles for the gravitational force. Virtual gravitons are emitted by all massive particles and communicate the gravitational force between them. Other interpretations have the gravitons interacting between massive particles and their local space-time with information about the mass modifying the local curvature and the local curvature affecting the geodesic lines of the mass. Gravitons are extremely high energy particles and real gravitons are rare. They can be emitted when very massive objects orbit each other closely causing massive energy loss into space-time and the radiation of gravitons in the form of gravitational waves from them. Gluon Gluon are the force-carrying particles for the strong nuclear force. Virtual gluons are emitted by all color carrying particles and communicated the strong nuclear force. Unlike other force-carrying particles, gluons carry color themselves generating eight different types of particles that self-interact. Due to confinement in quantum chromodynamic theory the gluons cannot exist beyond the size of a nucleus. Beyond this the gluon energies will grow to the level that it becomes advantageous to create new color-particles instead. W and Z Bosons W and Z bosons are the force-carrying particles for the weak nuclear force. There are two W bosons one with positive charge and one with negative charge, the Z bosons carry no charge. W bosons are involved in the absorption and emission of neutrinos, while Z bosons are involved with the elastic scattering of neutrinos. =Matter Building= Unlike Force carrying particles these particles are the basic constituents of all matter (and theoretical matter). They are composed of two classes of particles: Leptons, and Quarks. Quarks interact both via strong and weak nuclear force thus they can be found in atomic and particle nuclei and will form Hadrons or Mesons depending on the number of quarks. Leptons only interact via the weak nuclear force, and thus do not form into compact nuclei. Note all particles with mass interact gravitationally, but the masses of these particles are so small that the gravitational force on any one is essentially zero. The electromagnetic force acts on any particle that carries a charge and when applicable often dominates the behavior of these particles outside of the nucleus where the strong force dominates. Most of these particles are Fermions indicating that they have half-integer spin multiples of \hbar . Quarks There are a total of six quarks split up into three generations of particles. Each generation increases in mass, and thus become rarer to find in nature. The first generation is composed of up quarks and down quarks. Up quarks have a mass of roughly 2 MeV/c^2 and a charge of +2/3 e. Down quarks have a mass of roughly 4 MeV/c^2 and a charge of -1/3 e. Up and Down quarks make up virtually all of the hadrons that make up matter in our universe. The next family are the strange and charm quark. They have the same charge as up and down respectively with masses of 95 MeV/c^2 and 1290 MeV/c^2 respectively. Lastly are Top and Bottom, which also have the same charges as up and down respectively but with masses of 173,340 MeV/c^2 and 4180 MeV/c^2. All quarks are fermions with spin of 1/2 \hbar . Hadrons Hadrons are particles that are composed of 3 quarks or 3 anti-quarks. The two most common hadrons are the proton (up, up, down) and the neutron (up, down, down). Because there are an odd number of quarks all Hadrons are also fermions. The charge of the hadron can be found simply by adding the charge of the composite particles. The mass of hadrons is more complicated as the added binding energy of the strong nuclear force amplifies the mass considerably. For example the additive mass of the three quarks that make up a proton give it an expected mass of 8MeV/c2, while the actual mass is closer to 932 MeV/c^2. Neutron:'''Neutrons are Hadrons composed of one up quark and two down quarks and are most commonly found in the nuclei of atoms. They have a mass of approximately 1 u, and zero charge. Neutrons not contained within a nucleus are unstable, decaying with a half life of approximately 17 minutes. Isotopes differ from the standard form of an element by having more or less neutrons in their nucleus, altering the mass of the atom but leaving its chemical properties unchanged. Free Neutrons have been known to be emitted from certain cloaking configurations, though their intensity limits detection of them to extremely close ranges. '''Proton: Protons are Hadrons composed of two up quarks and one down quark and are most commonly found in the nuclei of atoms. They have a mass of approximately 1 u, and +1 charge. Protons and anti-protons are good tools for sensor particles as they are stable, interact gravitationally, electromagnetically, and have the potential to interact weakly and strongly under the right scenarios as well. Mesons Mesons are compound particles composed of a single quark and anti-quark. Examples of Mesons include, Kaons, Pions, rho particles, etc. Mesons act as a mediating particles for the strong nuclear force inside of nuclei. While gluons are exchanged within the size of a meson or hadron, mesons are needed to carry these gluons from one particle to another due to confinement. Since Mesons are composed of 2 fermions they themselves are bosons with a spin of 0 or 1. Leptons Like Quarks Leptons are composed to 2 groups in 3 families. The first group are the particles, and the second group are the neutrinos. The first generation consists of the election and the electron neutrino. like with quarks it's this first generation that make up the majority of the matter in the universe. The second generation consists of the muon and the muon neutrino, and the third generation consists of the tau and the tau neutrino. Unlike the other particles neutrinos are all extremely light, and there is a coupling between the different generations of neutrino allowing for an abundance of these muon and tau neutrinos as well as electron type. Leptons are all fermions with spin of 1/2. Neutrino: Neutrinos are the most common leptons and come in three flavors as mentioned above. With a good understanding of the rates of neutrino oscillations these particles can be used as effective tools for communication in regions with heavy ionization or dense matter where light and radio waves could not propagate. Electron: Electrons are the most common leptons to be found in nature behind the neutrinos. These particles have a charge of -1, and are common found in orbital shells of atoms. Electrons and their organized movement from one place to another forms the basis of power transmission for many societies. The positron is the anti-electron. Muon: An unstable particle similar to a much more massive electron. Muon's are common by-products of the matter-antimatter reactions, and can survive for long times in and around the warp coils. Build-up of these particles can be hazardous to the ship and in large quantities can cause a warp-field destabilization that will destroy the ship. Tau: An unstable particle similar to an extremely massive electron or muon. There extreme mass make tau particles rare to see in any but the most energetic processes in nature. =Other Partcles= These particles don't really fit into the classification scheme of the standard model and are thrown in here: Chroniton: These particles that are produced as a result of temporal violations of causal reality. These particles can be thought of as messenger particles for temporal events relaying the information of the change in the time-line through the past, present, and future allowing for the mitigation of causal breaking. Chronitons usually don't interact with each other, and when they do it results in temporal paradoxes from a break in the causal connection of two causal events. Depending on the nature of the interaction it will resolve itself by removing the paradox from space-time creating a close time-loop inside some region of space, or will break the time-line, creating two alternate realities. It is possible to use chronitons to manipulate one's movement through time; however doing so is extremely difficult and will often result in temporal paradoxes. Dekyon: A Dekyon is any particle that travels slower than the speed of light. In other words it is any particle with real, positive, definite mass. Tachyon: A Tachyon is any particle that travels faster than the speed of light. In other words it is any particle with an imaginary, positive, definite mass. Omega: Technically not a particle, but a molecular configuration of sub-atomic particles. Omega is an incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous energy source. The Borg are known to pursue Omega with almost religious devotion, believing it to be the ideal of perfection. Omega is highly unstable, and will decay rapidly if not actively and precisely controlled. Omega decays result in tremendous releases of energy that are capable of damaging subspace and rendering Warp Drive impossible.